Cookies and Croissants
by quicksilversquared
Summary: As a superhero, saving the world is standard fare. It's practically expected. But saving one's civilian friend from her best friend's off-target assumptions? Somehow, that's almost harder.
1. Chapter 1

Ladybug could only wonder at how in the world she had ended up in this situation, standing on the rooftops of Paris surrounded by a strange combination of surveillance equipment and bakery leftovers, and watching Rena Rouge fangirl in front of a cringing Chat Noir with all of the queasy fascination of someone watching a car crash in slow motion- she didn't want to see it, but she couldn't look away.

How she had gotten here... well, that was something that had been several months in the making, and on a path that had taken more than a few unlikely turns. Maybe not all of them had been well thought-out, but she wouldn't have changed them for anything.

And it had all started with her dad. Her dad, his need to feed everyone who was hungry ... and maybe a bit of a lingering fixation on Marinette's 'confession' to Chat Noir.

* * *

_If you feed a cat, you'll never get them to leave_.

As Marinette had found out several months prior, that applied to cat-themed superheroes, too.

After an evening akuma attack that ended in front of the bakery, Mr. Dupain had offered the exhausted superheroes bakery leftovers. Ladybug had accepted a couple cookies- all the better for not having to sneak them for Tikki later- but Chat Noir had been _entranced _by the options. Eating _everything_ would have made him sick, though- there was a_ lot _of chocolate and sugar and butter, even for a teenaged boy- and so he had dithered, indecisive.

And _then_ Mr. Dupain had suggested that maybe Chat Noir could come around a couple times a week in the evening and sample from the leftover bakery wares and perhaps even hang out with the family. Ladybug had thought that her partner would gently turn down that second part- after all, every minute they spent in their superhero forms meant another minute taken away from their civilian lives, another minute where they could be found missing, another minute of unexplained absence.

But Chat Noir seemed _delighted_ by the invitation. Twice a week, he showed up and hung out for pastries and Mecha Strike or a movie. That inched up to three times a week after a month and a half, and Marinette started doing her homework with him, too. She had to be careful not to slip up- after all, he was her _partner_ and so she knew more about him than a normal civilian would- but once she got used to it (and once she made sure that the Miracle Box was very thoroughly hidden), everything went smoothly.

Well. Mostly.

Three akuma attacks in oddly close succession that ended up affecting the bakery put both Marinette and Tikki- _and_ the rest of the kwamis under her guard- on high alert. The next time that Chat Noir came over, he seemed twitchy, too, and confessed after ten minutes that he was getting concerned that somehow, Hawkmoth had heard about him coming to the bakery. Maybe it was just a coincidence, of course- after all, the bakery _was_ located in the area of Paris that got hit with the most attacks- but it was just putting them all on edge.

So one evening, they set aside their video games and sat down as a family to come up with a plan that would let the superheroes find Hawkmoth and end the threat for once and for all.

It was simple, really, and in all honesty, the police force should have come up with it ages ago. All they needed was a grid of cameras set up across the city, allowing them to track where the akumas were coming from. Then they could figure out where the lair was, figure out who Hawkmoth was, and finish everything for once and for all. It would be a lot of work, though, and not something that the two main superheroes could feasibly pull off on their own, at least not without sacrificing a _lot _of sleep.

So they had tapped Carapace and Rena Rouge to help them, since the two of them had the most experience out of their array of superheroes. They were setting themselves up to a long night even with the two extra members of their team, but with every extra person they added to the mission, the possibility of someone talking and Hawkmoth finding out about it and adjusting his strategy rose.

...in retrospect, perhaps it hadn't been the smartest move to tap Rena Rouge if the goal was the information not leaking at all, but they couldn't call in Carapace and _not_ Rena, since Nino would no doubt mention the outing to Alya and she might be sore about not being included. Hopefully Alya could appreciate the importance of the information not getting out at all until Hawkmoth was defeated.

In all honesty, Ladybug admitted to herself as she glanced around at her assembled team and the bags and bags of cameras they had to set up, she probably shouldn't be using her old backup teammates at _all_. After all, Hawkmoth knew their identities now, and even if this wasn't a battle- even if they were doing their best to _not_ be spotted- having them out and about could result in their families getting targeted. It was fully possible that Hawkmoth hadn't immediately and completely exploited his knowledge of Chloe's identity to go after her family just because they were so famous and well-connected. Alya and Nino's families didn't have that protection.

But Ladybug and Chat Noir had _needed_ more helpers, and she didn't want to put new people on patrol on their own. So they had to stick with their identity-compromised team for now, and just hope against hope that Hawkmoth wouldn't spot them and wouldn't attack Nino and Alya's families.

"Okay, so I made a grid of the part of the city Chat Noir and I decided should be covered," Ladybug told the others, handing out both set-up instructions for the cameras and the maps she had made. It had taken a bit of work to find and download a maps program that she liked and then figure out how it worked to get the grid placed over it, but it had been worth it. "This covers Hawkmoth's usual akumatization range, and shows which direction I thought the cameras should point. This will be the initial set-up, and then once we get a couple weeks of footage, that should be enough to shrink the grid down a bit and hone in on Hawkmoth's lair."

Rena Rouge accepted the paper and glanced over it with a groan. "This is so spread out! We're going to be going all night, and I'm gonna be exhausted. And I have my sisters to babysit tomorrow, too," she added to Carapace with another small groan. "They'll run me over, I know. But I'm happy to help!" she added quickly. "It's just going to be a long night."

Carapace nodded. "Yeah. Getting all of the cameras set up, and making sure that they all work- that's, like, what? Ten, twenty minutes per camera, probably, if you count in travel time between spots, which- well, I'm no math whiz, but with all of the cameras we have..."

"I would have spread things out over a couple nights, but I thought it would be best if we could get this off of the ground right away," Ladybug told them, glancing towards her partner. Her partner, who was digging behind the chimney for something. Ladybug continued regardless. They didn't exactly have much time to waste. "We'll split up in teams and work our way around the city. Hopefully after the first couple cameras, we'll have things down to a science."

Chat Noir nodded, popping out from behind the chimney with a bag in hand. "Yeah! And to help the night go faster, I brought pastries!"

…for some reason, Ladybug was starting to feel the faintest tendril of dread curling in her gut.

"Oh, _sweet!_" Carapace was up at once, a grin on his face. "Butter and sugar, the best late-night companions! I can buy next time. I know pastries can get expensive _really_ fast."

"Oh, it's no problem," Chat Noir assured him with a grin. "I got these for free, actually, because I have this, uh, friend, and I told her dad that we were doing a stakeout all night, and so he gave me the leftovers from their shop." His smile turned smaller, entirely fond. "She- they're _fantastic_, really."

In the split second of silence that followed, Ladybug's brain picked up on Chat Noir's wording, that smile, pieced together _exactly_ what conclusion Rena Rouge would draw from that, and strongly considered turning around and banging her head against the nearby chimney because _really, what had she done to deserve this_?

"She's actually your girlfriend, isn't she?" Rena Rouge demanded, a wide grin spreading across her face. She pointed at Chat Noir. "I can tell from your expression! She totally is!"

"No!" Chat Noir protested, but Ladybug could see the red seeping out from under his mask even in the dim moonlight and she muffled a sigh. Alya wasn't going to let this go, she just knew it. Her friend had convinced herself that the pastries were from Chat Noir's secret girlfriend, based on the world's flimsiest evidence, and now that he had blushed, she wasn't going to be convinced otherwise. "No, we're- we're just friends!"

"De_nial!_" Rena Rouge sang, trying to snatch the bag out of his fingers. "How very _classic_. Just 'fess up, you've got a girlfriend and you're trying to hide it!"

"I don't- I don't even understand how you even _came_ to that conclusion!" Chat Noir protested, holding the bag up higher reflexively. "No, she's just a friend that I made in the mask, and we realized that it would be dangerous for me to keep visiting with Hawkmoth still at large after her house got targeted a few times. That's _all!_"

"You know, you're protesting _waaaay_ too much," Rena Rouge said smugly, leaning right up into Chat Noir's space. "And don't think that I didn't notice that blush, Mr. Just-Friends, and- _got it!_"

Chat Noir yelped, scrabbling after Rena Rouge as she danced away with the bag. "No, wait-"

"It's from the Tom and Sabine bakery- _wait!" _Rena stopped dead in her tracks, jabbing a finger into the air. "That means- that means that Chat Noir's mystery girlfriend is _Marinette!_ Oh, that girl has been holding out on me! She didn't tell me a thing! Oh my _god_ I _cannot_ believe this I've been trying to set her up with Adrien for _forever_ and she's been dating _you_ and- I can't believe that she didn't say anything! I'm going to _end_ her-"

Ladybug wondered if it would be possible for her to move to, say, Antarctica. She was going to _kill_ Alya. Could she _not_ have spilled that particular secret to Chat Noir? Sure, maybe Marinette wasn't exactly the most subtle person in the world about her crush, but she _had_ taken down most of her Adrien-focused posters after he had seemed to be more interested in Kagami, so it _was_ possible that he hadn't figured it out on his own.

Also, it was _so_ not cool that Alya was telling someone else about Marinette's crush when she had _promised_ not to.

Next to her, Chat Noir had blanched, wincing as Rena Rouge ranted on. He knew as well as she did who was behind Rena Rouge's mask now, after Chloe's little expedition to the dark side, so he knew _exactly _what his little flub had gotten Marinette into.

Well. Time for some damage control, it seemed.

"And how are you going to explain knowing about anything in the first place in order to interrogate her?" Ladybug asked Rena Rouge, crossing her arms as she leaned back against the nearby chimney. "Because as I see it, there's no way to explain _that_ away. _If_ there's anything going on in the first place, which Chat Noir has already said there's not."

"Well, maybe her parents-" Rena Rouge started, ignoring the last bit of Ladybug's comment, but Carapace shook his head.

"Her parents would _never_ tell anyone if she asked them not to, you know that," Carapace told her. "Admit it, there's no way to ask her about it unless you want her to figure out that you're Rena, because I just _know_ that _this_ dude is going to tell her that he told us." He jutted a finger at Chat Noir, who was still spluttering.

"Well _now_ he will, because you said that!"

"I'm _still_ not dating her!" Chat Noir insisted, properly red now. "I'm_ not_, she is seriously just a friend-"

Rena Rouge just wagged a finger at him. "Deny all you want, but I saw the clues there and you can't fool me! I'm a reporter, remember? I catch clues that other people don't, even if you're trying to hide them!"

Ladybug hastily stopped herself from choking on her laughter. _Right_, Alya was _totally_ super-observant. That was why she hadn't picked up on everything that was wrong with Lila and her stories yet. Or caught on to the fact that her best friend was Ladybug.

"No, seriously-"

"Okay, let's divide up the pastries then, one bag for each pair," Ladybug said loudly over Chat Noir. As much as she _really_ didn't want Alya thinking that she- well, _Marinette_\- was dating Chat Noir, arguing with Alya wasn't going to get them anywhere. It would probably make Alya even more convinced, actually, if Marinette's experience with trying to convince Alya that Lila was a big fat liar was anything to go by. Ignoring her entirely in favor of not reacting to her comments was _far_ more likely to get results. "Rena, hand over the bag, please."

Smirking widely, Rena Rouge did just that. Chat Noir pulled a second bag out from inside of the larger one- apparently he had come prepared, smart kitty- and handed it over, then retreated to Ladybug's side with the larger bag.

"Okay, so I've color-coded which spots each team will take," Ladybug told her teammates, gesturing to the map in her hand. "One person installs, the other keeps watch. I know we want to go fast, but we can't take any risks. No drawing attention to yourself, either- keep hidden, no pictures. We _can't_ have Hawkmoth catch on and adjust his location."

Rena Rouge saluted, cheeky smile in place. "Got it, boss!"

Ladybug sent her a Look. Carapace sighed and stepped in. "Right, we'll be careful. No tricks or showing off, I promise."

"_Thank_ you."

"Marinette is _absolutely_ going to kill me," Chat Noir groaned as Rena Rouge and Carapace dashed off with their bag. "Rena's her best friend, and when she thinks she has a scoop she _never_ lets go. _Never_."

Ladybug winced, nodding. She could just see it now, her best friend leaning over into her space whenever the teachers weren't looking, dropping heavy-handed hints about dates and dating in a not-so-subtle attempt to get Marinette to slip up and admit that she was dating someone, since Alya wouldn't be able to accuse her of keeping her 'relationship' with Chat Noir secret without admitting to how she got the idea in her head in the first place. After that hypothetical slip, Alya would be _relentless_ as she tried to get Marinette to then tell her who the secret boyfriend was, at which point she could then interrogate Marinette about what Chat Noir was like outside of battle, if she knew his secret identity, if Alya could interview him.

Even though Marinette _wasn't_ dating Chat Noir, it was still going to be absolutely infuriating to have to deal with. She would have to do some damage control on her end, too, letting her parents know about Alya's assumption and making sure that her dad knew that he was _not_, under any circumstances, to make any jokes or say anything that would egg Alya along. _How_ she would explain the whole situation and how she knew about it without giving away any secret identities, she didn't know, but if nothing else her time as a superhero had made her better at coming up with excuses.

Well. _Sometimes_ she was better. Sometimes panic took over her common sense and she ended up blurting the first thing that came to mind, the rest of her brain already focused on something else.

"I don't even understand how she got _girlfriend_ out of that," Chat Noir complained as he scooped up their share of the camera bags so that they could head for their first point. "Like, all I was doing was talking about how I got pastries from a friend's family and how nice it was for them to give us their leftovers, and the next thing I know, Rena's off with her theory."

"It was the way you said 'friend'," Ladybug informed him. "She was reading too far into your hesitation, and then you were smiling at the thought of your friend, and you mentioned the friend was a _she_."

Chat Noir _whined_. "But that's nothing, though! Doesn't everyone smile when they think about their friends? Unless they're fighting, I suppose, but the rest of the time?"

Ladybug shrugged the best she could as they swung through the air. "I didn't say that it had to make sense, just that that's how she was thinking."

"I thought that Alya wanted to be an investigative reporter, not a _tabloid_ reporter," Chat Noir grumbled. "That kind of thinking seems more in line with the latter, not the former."

Ladybug hastily hid another grin. A lot of Alya's questions could fit better into _tabloid_ thinking, honestly, and even more of her posts on the Ladyblog. Otherwise, there would be a whole lot fewer speculative posts about Ladybug and Chat Noir as civilians and a lot more posts looking into whatever clues they might have about Hawkmoth's identity. Still, they were still young, and so it was perhaps a little unfair to judge _too_ much. "Don't let her hear you say that. She _will_ end you."

"Oh, I _know_ she will." They landed in tandem, Chat Noir starting to set up their first camera while Ladybug kept watch. The rooftop was quiet, just like she had hoped- their grid had gotten disrupted by the Grand Paris, because the chance of someone seeing them was _way_ too high unless they waited until _crazy_ late- and it wasn't too hard to find a spot to attach the camera, something that would have a good vantage point without being overly easy to spot in case a security guard came up.

Hopefully Rena Rouge and Carapace would take all of that into consideration. It was entirely possible that Rena would be too distracted by her 'scoop' to really give as much thought as usual to what she was doing.

"I _did_ have a thought about the whole picking new holders thing," Chat Noir told her as he set up the camera, his fingers flying, and Ladybug jolted out of her thoughts to give him her full attention. "Hawkmoth knows who our current people are because they transformed into their normal outfits when they were under Miracle Queen's spell. But what if they just mixed up their transformations? It would have to be big changes, because otherwise that could tip them off, and maybe they would have to change hair color or something, too, but…"

"It could work," Ladybug agreed at once, happy with both the change of subject and the suggestion. She _really_ liked that idea, actually. There were only so many people that she knew and thought could be good fighters, and about the last thing that she wanted to do right now was pick out and train in _completely_ new superheroes, especially with Mayura showing up to fights more and more often. "New transformations, new names. We might want to re-introduce the 'new' superheroes gradually, though, or Hawkmoth could get suspicious. After all, it _should_ be hard to find and screen new superheroes that we can trust, so having a bunch of 'new' holders all at once could be _really_ unrealistic."

"Like keep some of the old ones for a bit, then have then 'swap out' for the 'new' ones," Chat Noir filled in. He grinned at her. "Nice thought."

"But _definitely_ no more Chloe," Ladybug finished. Then she made a face. "And no Lila, either. I heard that Alya was talking about how good of a holder Lila might be, and…"

Chat Noir's face screwed up in disgust. "Oh _god_ no."

"We might have to do a team briefing at some point and say no helping Lila at all, because she fakes injuries all the time to get help and take our attention away from the fight," Ladybug offered after a pause. She watched Chat Noir tweak one last wire, then check the camera before giving her a thumbs-up. They gathered up their bags, then made a beeline for the next spot before picking up the conversation right where they left off. "It'll sound bad, probably, but I don't want to risk Lila trying to steal a newbie's Miraculous."

Chat Noir looked startled. "You think she would?- actually, no, don't answer that, she would _totally_ jump at the chance to get magic powers," he corrected himself before Ladybug could say anything. "And I don't want her anywhere _near_ magic powers. She already gets akumatized enough, and the thought of her _always_ having access to superpowers..."

Both of them shuddered.

"Well, with any luck, we'll take Hawkmoth down soon and Lila won't have access to _any_ powers," Ladybug said after another minute. Chat Noir was finishing up with this camera, doing one more test to make sure it was running before they moved again. "Her _or_ any other bully in the city."

Chat Noir grinned. "Yeah. I honestly can't _wait_."

* * *

A week and a half later, Ladybug and Chat Noir got word from the police chief that the cameras had picked up enough butterflies to tighten their camera grid, which meant another late-night stakeout. Once again, Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng insisted on sending bakery leftovers with Chat Noir, and he accepted the bag and went on his way with a wince.

This _really_ wasn't going to do anything to convince Rena Rouge that he wasn't dating Marinette.

"I owe Marinette _so _many apologies already for this past week," Chat Noir told Ladybug when they met up. Behind her, he could see Rena Rouge and Carapace, plus Ryuko, a new Snake, and Chiron, who had joined them in a battle earlier that week. Clearly Ladybug had realized that there would be more work involved during this patrol, since they first had to gather up all of the cameras in order to be able to set them up in the slightly tighter grid. "Alya's been dropping hints nonstop to try to get her to admit that she's been secretly dating me. And now I have treats again, and she's going to take that as confirmation that I _am_ dating Marinette and her parents are just trying to spoil her boyfriend, because that's just how her parents _are_."

Ladybug nodded, glancing over her shoulder. "Yeah, honestly? That's the least of your concerns. Alya spotted you running over to Marinette's house one evening with a giant blanket under your arm, so now she thinks that you were staying over."

Chat Noir spluttered, feeling himself turning even redder. _How had Alya seen __**that?!**_ "No! No, no, we were having movie night and I _love_ curling up in a huge pile of blankets, so I brought one of my own and then one as a gift because I like taking naps over there in a huge blanket pile and I just wanted to expand Marinette's collection, I wasn't-"

Ladybug was giggling.

"Stop _laughing_," Chat Noir whined. "I swear, you're just as bad as Mari is. She'll offer up her blankets and pillows so that I can have a 'cat-nap in the sun', as if I'm an _actual_ cat and not just a cat-themed superhero, and then offer me catnip tea-"

"But do you take the blankets and the naps and the tea?"

Chat Noir sighed. Something told him that Ladybug somehow already knew the answer. "...yes."

"Ah-_hah_, Chat Noir! Guess what I saw this week?"

Chat Noir cast a _save-me_ look at Ladybug, then threw in some kitten eyes for good measure. His partner was unmoved.

...that was probably for good reason, honestly. He had gotten himself into this whole thing with his stomach- after all, while he tended to go to the Dupain-Cheng bakery mostly for the company now, since they gave him far more attention than his own father, he _had _started coming over largely because of the promise of leftover bakery treats- and now he had to get himself out.

Rena Rouge was _oozing_ smugness as she sauntered towards him, the rest of the group watching as she did. "I saw _someone_ visiting his girlfriend late in the evening. _And_ that someone was carrying blankets with him- did you have a sleepover?"

"No!" Chat Noir denied at once, because that _wasn't_ what had gone on, not at all, and _seriously, how had Alya even seen that?_ "We were having movie night and I wanted to be comfortable!"

….from the way Rena lit up, that hadn't been the right thing to say.

"Oooh, he admits to having a date night!" Rena Rouge exclaimed, clearly delighted. "That's so cute!"

"No, it was a family movie night that I got invited to join and her parents were there!" Chat Noir protested, but he could already feel the conversation spiraling out of his control. Alya- Rena- was only going to hear what she _wanted_ to hear, that much was obvious.

Also, the chortling kind of gave away the fact that his protests meant _nothing_ to her.

"Oh, I know how _that_ goes," Rena Rouge told him wisely, and Chat Noir only just managed to avoid her familiar elbow to his ribs. "The parents were there to keep things from getting too spicy!"

"_No!_" Chat Noir insisted, even though it was _completely _futile. He understood now what Marinette had muttered earlier in the week, about how Alya had a bulldozer personality. She just _didn't stop_.

"Your blush says otherwise!" Rena Rouge crowed, and Chat Noir cursed his burning cheeks. "Hah, I _knew_ it-"

"He's blushing because you're insinuating that he's getting intimate with someone he's _told_ you he's just friends with," Ladybug cut in with a long-suffering sigh, and Chat Noir almost melted with relief. If Rena had kept talking, he wasn't sure how he would be able to look Marinette in the eye when he went in for his regular visit tomorrow, or even at school on Monday. "And if you keep pestering him about it when he's already told you that there isn't a relationship beyond a friendship there, then maybe I'll tap someone else to help out in your place."

Rena went very, very still at that, and then took one careful step back away from Chat Noir. Behind her, Carapace's eyes were huge, and the other three superheroes had paused in their conversation to look over, too.

…._well_. Clearly all of them would think twice now about crossing Ladybug.

"Now, let's not waste any more time talking, since I know some people here can't sleep in tomorrow morning and we don't want to stay out forever," Ladybug continued, her flat tone vanishing in an instant and immediately getting replaced by something far more cheery. The difference was jarring, and Chat Noir couldn't blame all of the temporary heroes for taking a wary step back. "I've already given out maps of which teams have to collect which cameras and where you'll put them. A couple cameras will stay in place, but they have to be checked to make sure that they aren't running low on battery or anything."

Everyone nodded.

"And I have pastries," Chat Noir offered, because he _really_ couldn't eat all of them on his own. "I just need to sort them so that we have three bags instead of two, because I didn't know that we would have more people."

"I'll help!" the Snake offered, pushing jet-black hair out of his face. Luka had apparently gone for non-colored hair and a _completely_ different hairstyle with his new transformation, and it was a little unsettling. "Uh, do we need a third bag too, or…?"

With Cobra's help, it took no time at all for them to divvy up the treats, and then Rena Rouge and Carapace were off like a shot. The others lingered, and Ladybug raised an eyebrow at them. "Do you have a question?"

"Yeah, uh- what was that earlier?" Cobra asked, clearly nervous about asking. "If you don't mind us asking."

"Rena Rouge was making a mountain out of a molehill and wouldn't drop the topic," Ladybug told them with a sigh. "If she tries telling you anything about Chat Noir having a girlfriend, it's not true. She just took some stuff out of context and won't listen to anything we say to the contrary."

Ryuko let out a sigh. "I know people like that in my normal life. Exhausting, aren't they?"

"It can be frustrating," Ladybug agreed. "Hopefully she'll learn to be better soon, though, and I think I got her to drop it for now. So let's get going, team! Those cameras won't move themselves!"

As their group scattered, Chat Noir could only hope that Ladybug was right.

* * *

_a/n: This is part 1 of 2! Part 2 will be coming soon enough._

_As always, comments make my day! :)_


	2. Chapter 2

_a/n: Sorry about the delay! I had had the second part ready, then RIGHT before I posted it I was doing one last edit...and I wasn't happy with it. So it got pulled and I've been re-working it ever since. And now it has three parts, because I expanded some stuff to add more details._

* * *

Alya had _not_ dropped it.

Oh, sure, she had stopped openly teasing Chat Noir about his girlfriend during the battles where Rena Rouge (and later, Vixen) was called on, and she wasn't bugging him about Marinette during their camera-moving patrols, but there were little side comments (though not enough to attract Ladybug's attention, unfortunately) and, as Adrien, he overheard Alya pestering Marinette with increasingly less veiled comments. Lila hadn't helped things at all when she overheard a few of the comments and then told Alya afterwards about how she had seen Marinette with someone who looked like he was maybe her boyfriend a couple of days prior. Sure, Lila had been largely discredited a week later, after Ladybug had completely shot down Vixen's proposed rescue of Lila during an akuma attack by calling the Italian girl a liar and a thief and not worth their time (the look on Vixen's face as that sunk in had been _hilarious_), but Alya still seemed to think that maybe Lila hadn't lied about that one sighting. After all, all of her _other_ lies were about famous people, just to boost her reputation, and why would Lila bother to make something up about _Marinette?_

It was _frustrating_, and even more so that Chat Noir couldn't do anything about it. Ladybug had told him that giving any sort of reaction to Alya-slash-Rena-slash-Vixen was probably just going to end up egging her on. That meant that he was limited to snorts and eye-rolls when Vixen started up with her comments. Despite Ladybug's insistence on that strategy, it didn't seem to be getting through to her at all. Maybe it would have been more effective back at the very start, when Alya had just gotten the idea, but it was too late to go back and change things now.

Still, he wanted to make things right and get it through Alya's head that Chat Noir wasn't dating Marinette, because Marinette's family had been nothing but fantastic to him and repaying that with almost endless nagging from Alya didn't seem very kind.

And then one evening, Chat Noir made an accidental discovery during an impulse visit to Marinette's balcony that made it even more important that he deal with Alya's continued belief that Chat Noir was dating Marinette. Like, _now_.

Because Ladybug was _Marinette_ and if he wanted to date her- _properly_ date her, with both of them in their civilian forms- without giving away his identity to Alya, too, then he needed to knock that belief right out of Alya's mind.

The only question was _how_.

"She's just so set that she's right about Chat Noir and I dating now, even if we've given her no ammo recently," Marinette groaned as the two of them sprawled out in the ever-growing pile of blankets in her room. They had decided to forgo their regular patrol- the cameras weren't due to be moved yet anyway- to hang out and talk about the surprise reveal so that they wouldn't give anything away during school the next day by acting off. Adrien could tell that it had been a good idea, because if he had thought that _he _had been surprised when he dropped by Marinette's room for a surprise visit before patrol and saw her transforming into Ladybug, Marinette had been even _more_ knocked off balance by his impulsive reveal. They had only just managed to pull themselves back together and fall into their normal routine after the silence had gotten to be too much for both of them and they had burst out into giggles. "I mean, it's possible that all we would have to do to convince her that she's wrong would just be to start dating and she would realize that she was being ridiculous and just jumped to conclusions- I know Nino's been telling her that pretty regularly, so it's not like the idea hasn't been floated- but there's always that chance that she- well, that she'll make the _correct_ assumption. And maybe Hawkmoth will be gone soon, but- well, I just don't want to start spreading my identity everywhere. Just in case anything pops up in the future."

"So what _should_ we do?" Adrien asked, the question as much for Marinette as it was for their two kwamis. The had decided to both stay detransformed while they were hanging out just to get used to it, and while it was a _little_ awkward to have Tikki and Plagg so actively listening and chiming in on their conversation, he couldn't deny that their wisdom and experience might be helpful. "Because I don't want to have to wait _years_ to date you, just because of Alya and her overactive imagination. That's too _long_."

"Well, there's always dating in secret," Marinette offered up, shifting her spot in the blankets so that she was half-resting against his side. "But then if we get caught, it'll look even _more_ suspicious, like you revealed your identity to me and we were just trying to hide that. There wouldn't be _any_ coming back from that."

Adrien groaned some more.

Plagg snorted. "I still think that the best way to prove that Chat Noir _isn't _dating Marinette is to have him date someone else. Ladybug and Chat Noir can date, Alya will drop it, and then you can wait a bit before _Adrien and Marinette_ start dating, just to hide the coincidence."

"But what's stopping Alya from assuming that Marinette is Ladybug, then?" Adrien challenged him. "Because if she could make the jump from me hesitating over the word _friend_ to assuming that we were secretly dating, then the jump from _Marinette is Chat Noir's girlfriend but Ladybug is Chat Noir's girlfriend_ to _Ladybug is Marinette_ isn't very far."

"Why _did_ you hesitate, by the way?" Marinette asked, gently bumping his arm with her fist. "We're friends!"

Adrien caught Marinette's hand and gave her knuckles a kiss, just because he _could_. "Because I was worried that it wasn't a good idea to admit that I was friends with a civilian as my superhero self. Because I wondered if _Chat Noir_ and Marinette were close enough to be considered friends or if us being friends as civilians was influencing my definition. Because I overthought it. Choose your favorite."

"Mmm."

They fell silent, both of them doing their best to brainstorm. Adrien closed his eyes, basking in the warm patch of blanket that he had just wriggled into.

Maybe he wasn't _actually_ a cat, but there was no denying that the warmth of the nearby radiator combined with the soft blankets was _heaven_. There was a _reason_ that he kept on ever-so-stealthily expanding Marinette's blanket collection, and- well, this was it.

(Adrien idly wondered if there was a good way for him to more sneakily keep adding pillows and blankets to Marinette's collection so that she wouldn't tell him to stop. Maybe he could suggest making a fleece knot blanket together, and of _course_ it would make more sense for her to keep it in her room since they spent all of their time there anyway. But that was just _one_ blanket, and really Adrien would love a nice, thick pile, perfect for burrowing in and wrapping himself in and draping himself over, so he would have to come up with more ideas.

But that- well, that was a secondary problem, just a little one, and not _nearly_ as pressing as the one that he was _meant_ to be thinking about, so maybe he would think about that later.)

"I suppose you would have the same problem if Marinette dated Adrien," Tikki mused aloud after a couple minutes, making Adrien startle. Apparently he had been drifting off with the blankets and the sun and the company. "And of course, if Ladybug and Chat Noir were ever caught acting too close, Alya could figure out both of you. Hmm." She considered that. "What if you fake a break-up? Then you could just wait a little while before dating publically."

Both Adrien and Marinette instantly made a face at the suggestion. Tikki bristled.

"_What?_"

"I just don't think it would work," Adrien started slowly, glancing over at Marinette. "Like, Alya is currently under the assumption that Chat Noir and Marinette are dating, right? And the assumption that she knows about it, and Chat Noir knows she knows. I feel like she would be _expecting_ us to stage a break-up so that I could date Marinette as my civilian self without Alya finding out my secret identity. And maybe the timing is weird, because we haven't defeated Hawkmoth yet, but we _are_ close to finding out who he is and she might think that we're trying to get the slip on her."

"Exactly," Marinette agreed. "That is _exactly_ the kind of convoluted reasoning that she would jump at. And- I don't know, that just feels like letting her win a bit, you know? It would be rewarding her tendency to jump to conclusions, and then she'd maybe be more likely to keep on doing it because she was 'right' this time."

Adrien nodded. Maybe it was a little petty, but he didn't want to vindicate Alya's scoop, not after she had spent weeks and weeks bugging Marinette for details about a relationship that didn't exist. How Marinette had put up with that, he really didn't know. "That, too."

"Ugh, you're being so _difficult_," Tikki complained, but Adrien could tell that she could see their point. "Fine. Uh, maybe if we…" She trailed off, frowning, apparently just out of ideas as the rest of them were.

_That_ was a bit concerning. If the centuries-old kwamis couldn't think of a solution, what chance did the rest of them have?

"What we _really_ need," Marinette said slowly, "is solid, indisputable proof that we _aren't_ Ladybug and Chat Noir."

Adrien snorted. "Which is hard, since we _are_. Except- _oh!_" He shot upright at once, positive that he had caught on to Marinette's idea. "The Fox! We just need to use that Miraculous and make an illusion of all four of us- our superhero selves _and_ our civilian selves- together, where Alya can see it!" That was a _great_ plan, really. They might have to tweak the illusion a bit so that Alya wouldn't notice how similar they looked- and wasn't it a good thing that Marinette had started changing up how she wore her hair from day to day?- but it would be the proof that they would need to make any of their other ideas work without backfiring.

And all they would need would be a simple illusion. One shot, one illusion with the four of them near the bakery, and they would be home free. By next week, he could be sitting in a cafe with Marinette on a date, sharing a plate of pasta Lady and the Tramp-style.

"It wouldn't be _quite_ that simple," Marinette warned him, pushing herself up from the blankets as well and pulling Adrien out of his daydream of kisses over a basket of garlic bread- or maybe just _regular_ bread, since garlic bread probably wasn't a great idea for a first date. "Alya knows about the Fox and its powers, since she's used it so many times before. If we're too obvious about it and about going out of our way to make sure that she notices, then she might get _more_ suspicious instead of less."

Adrien frowned at that, puzzled, but decided not to question it. Marinette knew Alya better than he did, so if she thought that a simple Mirage of Adrien and Marinette next to Ladybug and Chat Noir would make Alya suspicious, then he wouldn't argue.

After all, Marinette- as Ladybug- had figured out that his comments as Chat Noir would make Alya suspect that he was dating her before Rena Rouge had even said anything. Clearly she knew how her best friend's brain worked.

Next to him, Plagg groaned. "Oh, no, not the convoluted plans again! Spare me!"

Marinette ignored him. "The main problem, as I see it, is that we don't have many excuses for Ladybug and Chat Noir to visit Adrien and Marinette publicly, in a scenario that _wouldn't_ look staged. The most believable scenario would be a rescue during an akuma attack, but I don't know if it would actually be a good idea to try to create an illusion then. We'd be rushing, the chances of Alya seeing it wouldn't be great, and the chances of something going wrong and disrupting the illusion- well, that might be too high to risk it."

"It would make us look even _more_ suspicious," Adrien agreed. He half-frowned, half-pouted as he considered the problem. Maybe he was usually pretty good at being patient, but now that he knew who his Lady was and that she _like_-liked him, he wasn't particularly interested in sitting around on his hands and _not_ doing anything about it. But he wasn't coming up with any solutions that didn't have major potential for backfiring identities-wise, and he _knew_ how important her secret identity was to Marinette. He wasn't going to press for anything that might endanger that. "Ugh. This is a _disaster_."

"There, there, kitty." He could hear the muffled laughter in Marinette's voice as she patted his head. "We'll figure something out, even if it takes a few weeks."

Adrien could only groan, throwing his head back. "Ugh. That's going to feel like _forever_."

* * *

Three days, later, Adrien was suddenly facing a much more pressing issue, one that shoved all of his other thoughts about how _unfair_ their current situation was to the side. The net of cameras had finally managed to capture the source of all of the corrupted butterflies…..and they were indisputably coming from the Agreste Mansion.

* * *

In the end, it was Dragoness who took Hawkmoth and Mayura down, in very typical Dragoness fashion.

"Oh, this is _dumb_," she had groaned after all of the superheroes had gathered to brainstorm how to attack Mr. Agreste and Mayura. Idea after idea had been shot down, because they wanted to be safe about the entire attack instead of rushing in and risking injury, and clearly the deliberations were wearing on Dragoness' patience. "We hesitate, and Mr. Agreste has more of a chance to do damage or find out about the police effort and the fact that we know who he is now. We can do one small ambush attack and be done, and then go back to our normal lives."

And with that, she had hopped off of the roof, dashed for the Agreste Mansion before anyone could stop her, turned into pure lightning, blasted through the window, and knocked both Mr. Agreste and Nathalie unconscious with a well-aimed jolt to the head before they even realized that she was there. The fight between superheroes and supervillains ended not with an epic battle, but with the rather anticlimactic _thud_ of two unconscious bodies hitting the floor in a pristine home office while static crackled through the air.

The rest of their group stared.

"Well, that's one way to do it," Ladybug said dryly after several moments had passed and she had regained her composure, swinging through the window that Dragoness had shattered. "Nice work. Vixen, Leonardo- I want you to call the police to come pick these two up and then go out front to let them in. The rest of us can get the Miraculous and start documenting and gathering up anything else Miraculous-related."

Vixen opened her mouth- to protest, Ladybug was pretty positive, because of _course_ she would want to poke around all of the Miraculous stuff but that wasn't going to happen if Ladybug could help it- but Leonardo elbowed her and pulled her out of the room before she could say anything.

"I'd also like someone watching Mr. Agreste and Ms. Sancoeur even after we take their Miraculous," Ladybug added. "Make sure that they're still breathing and don't wake up suddenly."

Cobra nodded. "I can do that. I've taken first aid before, I know what to look for."

"Good. Thank you." Ladybug let out a long breath, then looked around the room. Chat Noir was clearly doing all he could to not look at his fallen father and Nathalie, but everyone else seemed to be relatively unrattled. "Chiron, can you hack into the computers? If there's any information in there about motives, that would be great to know. Dragoness-"

"I have retrieved the Miraculous." Dragoness held out her hand to Ladybug, the Butterfly and the Peacock glittering from her palm. "They were not trying particularly hard to hide them, oddly enough. I would have expected more effort."

"Well, they weren't expecting people to find out about them," Ladybug pointed out with a little laugh. She took the Miraculous, tucking them away in her yo-yo, then glanced around again. Chiron had grabbed Mr. Agreste and was using the limp fashion designer's hand to get past the lock screen. Cobra looked less than certain about the manhandling of the unconscious ex-supervillain, but he wasn't objecting yet, either. "So there's no point in tucking the Miraculous away behind layers and layers of fabric. And they're camouflaged anyway, so..."

Dragoness looked less than convinced. Still, she turned away, working her way around the room, looking behind paintings and photos for hidden safes. Chat Noir had already opened the safe behind the portrait of his mom, cracking the door in half with his baton. Ladybug dithered for a moment, not entirely sure where she should start. Before she could go for the drawers of the desks- a fairly logical place to hide things, really- Chiron looked up from the computer.

"Ladybug? Chat Noir? I- I think you should see this."

* * *

Hawkmoth was defeated. Paris was safe. Adrien's father and Nathalie were safely in jail, recovering from the healthy jolt of electricity to the head that they had gotten. All of the temporary Miraculous were back with Ladybug- after all, it wouldn't be a good idea to have _too_ much magic jewelry floating around, even if they had good teammates- and Mrs. Agreste had been found, thanks to the information that Chiron had found on Mr. Agreste's computer, and Voyage'd off to Tibet for soul purification and healing with the restored temple of Guardians.

And, well, it turned out that having one's father exposed as a supervillain did have one _very_ convenient upside.

After all, now it wasn't unbelievable that the superheroes might drop in and check up on Adrien every so often to make sure that he was coping with his father's arrest and to give him any updates on Mrs. Agreste's condition. And since the superheroes were very likely to be busy and need to be on their way quickly, it would make the most sense for Adrien to meet up with them in the mansion's courtyard.

And of course, for that to actually _happen_…well, it required a little bit of Miraculous magic, and a bit of planning.

Or a _lot_ of planning, since Marinette was involved and wanted to make sure that all of their bases were covered and that nothing would go wrong. Adding to the difficulty, of course, was the fact that Alya had _used_ the Fox Miraculous before and would be more likely than most people to pick up on anything that wasn't quite right. They had gone over the plan dozens of times, reviewing and fine-tuning it before the superheroes' first "visit".

And yet Marinette was still really nervous about something going wrong, considering that she was going over the plan _again_. Adrien _would_ remind her that he already knew it by heart- after all, he _had_ been present and active in the whole planning process- but if going over the plan again out loud was going to help Marinette be less nervous, Adrien wasn't going to stop her.

"I'll start the illusions a bit away, in an obvious area," Marinette was saying, pacing back and forth across the room as all of the kwamis watched her. "Then they'll swing by your window so that you know to come out to the front and pretend to chat. They'll stick around long enough for people to get in a picture or two, then leave. And remember-"

"-don't touch the illusions," Adrien finished for her, figuring that it was a good way to show her that he was listening and hadn't just checked out. "I know. I'll be careful."

"I'd make _you_ an illusion, too, just so that there could be a little more interaction between you, but if the Gorilla comes out at all…" Marinette sighed, finally flopping onto the couch. "Hopefully he doesn't, or at least doesn't try to come over and listen in. I _can_ do conversation, of course, but I'd have to actually think of things to _say_. And _voices-_ I can do mine, obviously, but _yours?_"

"Chat Noir could always have a nasty cold that made him lose his voice," Adrien pointed out. He reached for Marinette's hand as she slid on the Fox Miraculous. "You've got this, Bugaboo. You've done illusion improv before and did _amazing_. I trust you. And I'll help, too, if he comes out. I can prompt the conversation with questions. You don't have to overthink this."

Marinette let out a long breath, her shoulders finally slumping as she relaxed. "Right."

Adrien pulled her into a hug. "You've got this."

"Right." Marinette took another deep breath, then called on Tikki and Trixx. With a flash of light, she transformed, and then she wasted no time at all in leaping out of the window, headed across the rooftops to find a place to hunker down so that she could watch her illusions without getting spotted herself. Adrien settled back down on the couch, keeping one eye on his window and the other on his phone, open to the superhero tag. He wanted to be able to let Foxybug know when her illusions were spotted, so that they could stop lingering and instead head straight for the mansion. After all, they wanted to balance getting attention with being believable, and favoring one over the other could easily be enough to raise some suspicion.

Despite the fact that the akuma threat was gone- or perhaps because of it, since sightings of the superheroes had gotten fewer and further between- it wasn't long before people started noticing the superheroes and posting about it online. A few were even posting pictures, and Adrien grinned when he saw one that had Ladybug and Chat Noir with their heads together, clearly deep in discussion about something serious. Foxybug wasn't having them go anywhere in a hurry, but- well, considering that the superheroes would have probably felt a bit awkward around Adrien if he hadn't been part of their team in the first place, their hesitation before talking to him was understandable. Two teenagers who hadn't been trained in giving news to family members of- well, family members of people who weren't in the best shape- would be a bit apprehensive.

Adrien's grin got wider. Marinette was _so_ clever. He would have had the illusions wandering back and forth to get attention- the most obvious route to take, at least in his mind- and _that_ would have been _far_ more suspicious. Her ability to plan out believable scenarios, even when they weren't the most obvious- and often right on the spot, too-

Well, she was just incredible. That much was obvious- and had always _been_ obvious.

Adrien couldn't wait until their plan had worked and he could safely date Marinette.

A tap at his window startled Adrien out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see the superhero illusion. He waved at it, then got up and headed for the courtyard in front of the mansion, squinting a little against the sun.

Unsurprisingly, the superhero illusions had beat him there and were waiting at the top of the steps. Perhaps a little _more_ surprisingly, Adrien could already see a couple people not-so-discreetly peering through the gate, their phones out.

If this had been a _real_ update meeting about how his mom was doing, Adrien would be pretty ticked at the invasion of his privacy, even though no one would actually be able to overhear their talking from the gate. As it was…

Well, he was still a bit irritated by it. After all, real or not, people were clearly prioritizing their interest in gossip over his right to privacy. But it was what he and Marinette _wanted_ to happen, to keep their identities safe, so he wouldn't complain.

(_Too_ much, at least.)

An awkward moment passed as illusions and civilian stared at each other, suddenly feeling too awkward to act. Since Adrien got the information on his mom at the same time as Ladybug did, there was no need to actually discuss her now, but that meant that they had to decide on a topic of conversation unless they just wanted to mime a conversation and hope that there were no binocular-eyed lip-readers in the group lingering at the gate.

"Er- thank you for coming, Ladybug and Chat Noir," Adrien finally said, breaking the silence even as he struggled to come up with a topic to discuss. Even with his background in modeling and dabbling in acting, he didn't think that he could pull off a several-minute "conversation" with the superheroes about nothing and make it look believable. "So, uh, how is my mom doing?"

…well, it wouldn't hurt to just reiterate the little information that he had already heard, he supposed. They could manage _that_, surely, even if both of them had suddenly gone tongue-tied.

So much for not overthinking things. Really, it was a miracle that they had done so well with akuma fights when they managed to get wrapped up in their own heads

Ladybug blinked, then sighed. "Oh. So we're actually talking, then."

Adrien tried not to laugh at that. "I figured that it would probably be more convincing than just standing around staring at each other, yes."

"Right- I mean, obviously, yes, mouths should be moving, but now I have to think of _dialogue_."

Adrien was starting to struggle to keep a straight face. If he laughed, that would be _crazy_ suspicious. "We could just talk about the weather. How's the air above Paris, Chat Noir?"

There was a pause, and then Chat Noir scrunched up his nose at Adrien and said, in what was possibly the worst imitation of his voice that Adrien had ever heard in his life, "Paw-sitively _purr_fect_."_

Adrien practically choked in his effort not to laugh at that.

"_Anyway_, there's not much to report," Ladybug said a little louder than necessary, probably to cover up any suspicious noises from his muffled laughter. "The Guardians have reported your mom's safe arrival, and tests on her condition are expected to begin shortly. They just want to ensure that she will be stable during tests."

Adrien rearranged his face into something more suitable for the occasion. "What, you didn't like the weather talk? Pity."

"There's only so much I can think to talk about that's weather-related!" Ladybug protested. "Anyway, my timer is beeping, I'll have to wrap this up. We'll check in with you in a few days."

Adrien nodded, stepping back to give the illusions plenty of space to take off without crashing into him before turning to watch them go. He glanced at the gate- there were still people there, and a few withdrew hastily when they saw him looking at them as though he might not notice them there, while others clearly weren't at all ashamed at getting caught- and then turned and headed inside.

"First meeting was a success, I think," Marinette said as soon as Adrien stepped into his room, making him startle. For some reason, he hadn't guessed that she would be able to circle back and rejoin him so quickly, but he really _should_ have. She was speedy, after all, and she would have been reaching the end of her Fox transformation. "Not everyone who was peeking in had their phones out for pictures, but most did. I wouldn't be surprised if at least one photo hits the internet."

"A necessary annoyance," Adrien agreed, flopping down on the couch next to her and resting his head against her shoulder. Now that that was over, he could properly relax. "And Alya follows the superhero tags religiously, so if it gets posted, she'll see it."

"Exactly." Marinette glanced over at him, grinning. Clearly she was feeling just as relieved that the first part of their plan was over with. "So. What do you want to do now?"

* * *

_a/n: The third and final part will be coming (for real this time) after the next The Substitute Ladybug update (so hopefully about two weeks?). I'll be moving states at that time though, so that might push things back a bit. _

_As always, comments make my day!_


	3. Chapter 3

If it hadn't been for Marinette and Nino, Adrien probably would have assumed that- somehow, impossibly- Alya hadn't heard about Ladybug and Chat Noir's visit to the mansion. For once, she had clearly put a lid on her curiosity and restrained herself from interrogating Adrien about what the superheroes had said. Alya hadn't stopped _theorizing_, of course, but she wasn't doing it in front of Adrien, or even in places where Adrien might 'accidentally' overhear.

"She's pretty dead on with her assumptions," Marinette told Adrien as they planned their next "meeting", two days after the first one. It had seemed a bit soon to both of them at first, like they were desperate to be seen, but- well, it made sense that Adrien would want frequent updates. A lot could change in two days, at least theoretically. "She guessed that they were probably just keeping you updated and that there wasn't much to report yet."

Plagg cackled. "Technically, she wasn't completely accurate," he quipped. "As I recall, you tried and failed to talk about the weather, too."

"Okay, yes, but- hey, it's what we _intended_ to have people think!" Marinette protested. "It's what we would have said if we were actually doing the meeting. And I _did_ give an update and there _wasn't_ much to report yet."

"Yeah, that's a bit- well, maybe I had my hopes too high that the Order would be able to help Mom really fast," Adrien sighed, leaning into Marinette's side. She leaned back, solid and comforting, and he relished in the contact. They still had to be careful with how they acted around each other most of the time- whenever people might pop in on them- so the moments when they could be close were fewer than Adrien really would have liked. "I mean, I know they're doing their best, and I really appreciate that they're working so hard to be careful so that Mom doesn't get worse, but today's update was _still_ 'stabilizing and starting research'."

"They _did_ tell us that it could take a while," Marinette pointed out quietly, pulling him closer to her side. "There's a lot of possibilities of what could have gone wrong, and how the magic could have affected her. Acting on the wrong assumption could make it harder to heal her properly once they figure out what the real problem is." Her chin rested against the side of his head, and Adrien couldn't help but smile as she nuzzled him. "D'you want to come over tonight as Chat? My parents commented yesterday that they hadn't seen you around recently."

Adrien perked up. Did he want to come over? Did he _ever_. "I'd love that."

"I figured you might." Marinette gave his hair an affectionate ruffle, and Adrien gave into the urge to lean into her hand and purr right away. "I'll get out the blankets when I get home."

"_Oooh_."

"But that's later, and we still have to do today's 'visit'." Marinette peeled herself away from Adrien (who absolutely did _not_ whine at the loss of contact) and reached into her bag, pulling out a small box that Adrien recognized as a Miraculous box. "It's pretty much the same time as the last visit, and regularity is probably a good thing."

"Right, we won't have to do as much to get people to come and look." Adrien glanced over at Marinette. "You know, if you wanted, we have a study room that overlooks the courtyard. You could just transform and stay in there and be able to get a pretty good view of what's going on."

Marinette considered that, then shook her head. "Not this time. I need to be able to be pretty sure that there won't be any surprise pigeons that could disrupt the illusions on their way over. Once I don't have to really catch people's attention, then that would be nice. I'd just have to remember to include a bit of illusion in front of the window, so that no one sees me looking out."

Adrien hadn't thought of that. It was _really_ smart, though. One glimpse of anything Fox-related, and Alya would be on them in a second. With a sigh- he didn't really_ want_ to get up- Adrien pushed himself to his feet. "Okay. I'll go out to the steps. Meet you back here afterward?"

"Of course."

Their second 'meeting' went much like their first. Adrien frowned at the gawkers by the gate more openly this time- seriously, didn't any of these people have common decency? Or something better they could be doing?- but only a very few people skittered away.

"We could try to get the Gorilla to shoo them away," Marinette suggested afterwards. She was flopped on Adrien's lap, idly playing with one of her hair ribbons. Her one undone pigtail was splayed out over one of his legs. "Mention that it's annoying to have people taking pictures and trying to listen in. Honestly, it would probably just add to the realism, don't you think? After all, why would anyone _bother_ staging something fake if they didn't want anyone else looking?"

"Except he might do _too_ good of a job." Adrien twisted his fingers through Marinette's loose hair, happy to be able to play with it. "And we still need to get you in a picture or two with Ladybug. Maybe we can do that if people pick up on the schedule and we get, like, bigger crowds or something. He'd probably pick up on it on his own at that point."

"Mm. Right."

"D'you want to add yourself to the illusion sometime next week?" Adrien suggested after a minute. "We can ramp up the closeness at school a bit, so it's not a surprise that you would be over here. Then we can get a picture or two with you and Ladybug out."

"Yeah, sure. I don't think it'll take much, honestly." Marinette leaned into his hand, and Adrien didn't miss the opportunity to brush his thumb across her cheek. "Alya knows that we've hung out together without her and Nino before, and not just when they 'subtly' ditched us."

Adrien had to laugh at that. Now that all of their feelings were out in the open, the truth had come out about their friends' not-so-subtle attempts to set them up had come out, too. And now that he had more context for the weird behavior- the weird behavior from _all_ of his friends, not just Marinette- and he wasn't wondering what he was missing or doing wrong, it was all pretty funny.

"Are we taking bets on if the Ladyblogger is going to start up the matchmaking again soon?" Plagg asked, zipping around to join them now that his cheese was finished. "Or do we think that she's still off on her assumption that Pigtails is dating Chat Noir?"

"I have a name, Plagg," Marinette said with a sigh. She started to sit up, only to stop and flop back into Adrien's lap with a huff of amusement when he let out a whine automatically. "And it's hard to tell what Alya's thinking about that at the moment. She's stopped with the hints and pointed questions and whatnot, but it's hard to tell if she's dropped the idea completely or if it's just that there's so much else going on and there's more important things to worry about."

Adrien worried his lower lip. That probably made things more difficult, then. Marinette would be the one who would have the best idea about what Alya was thinking, and if she didn't have any idea of what Alya thought…

"My guess, though, is that she hasn't forgotten," Marinette spoke up again after a minute. "She's not had any truly conflicting evidence yet, so she hasn't had any reason to drop the idea fully."

"Unless she's realized that her jump to conclusions didn't exactly have any evidence, either," Tikki chimed in. "Isn't that a possibility?"

Marinette snorted. "You're talking about the girl who was convinced that Chloe was Ladybug. No."

Adrien turned red and glanced away. He had been thrown off by Alya's suspicion, too, at least briefly. In his defense, thought, he had assumed that she would have good evidence if she was willing to risk Chloe's wrath. "Uh. Right."

"But I guess it doesn't really matter, not right now," Marinette said. She grinned up at Adrien. "We'll see what happens later, after the other meetings and after Ladybug and Chat Noir start dating."

Adrien grinned back. "I can't wait."

* * *

The next several meetings went smoothly, now that they had gotten into a groove. General public curiosity seemed to have largely dropped off- after all, there were no dramatics and they couldn't hear anything anyway- but a couple tabloid reporters could be counted on to always show up, peering through the gates and snapping a few photos of Adrien and the superheroes before they could get chased off by the Gorilla. A few times, paparazzi had even managed to snap pictures of a girl with Adrien, standing at his side and listening in on part of the conversation before excusing herself to head indoors and give him a bit of privacy with the superheroes.

Alya pounced on Marinette after that, dragging her off to the locker rooms to interrogate her about what she had heard. She was a bit disappointed to hear that Marinette hadn't stuck around long enough to hear anything of interest, but had to admit that it was probably smart to do it that way.

And despite the regular- and _frequent_\- meetings, no one suspected the Fox's involvement at all. Ladybug was good at keeping her illusions safe and far away from anything that might disturb them. On top of that, she had decided one day to add on an illusion of pigeons flying right past Ladybug and Chat Noir, making Chat Noir 'sneeze' and almost giving Adrien a heart attack in the process because she had forgotten to warn him that she was going to do that beforehand. He had been convinced that all of their hard work to separate their identities was about to go up in twin puffs of orange, pigeon-scented smoke, and for it to _not_ do that…

Well, it was lucky for both of them that Adrien hadn't slumped to the ground in relief once the illusions landed safely. _That_ would have looked pretty suspicious, though it was possible that they would have been able to chalk it up to the news: Mrs. Agreste's condition had been fully figured out, treatment had started, and she was already making great improvement with her recovery.

And then, a day after they got the news that Mrs. Agreste had woken up, Ladybug and Chat Noir were seen looking _very_ close in public. Paris went mad when Madam Chamack managed to get her hands on a photo of the two superheroes sharing a kiss over what looked like a midnight picnic.

And Alya was clearly left confused, if the multiple texts consisting entirely of question marks that she had sent Marinette was any indication. Marinette had just sent question marks back, playing dumb about why Alya would be anything besides ecstatic that the superheroes were clearly dating now.

Next to her, Adrien had snickered at the exchange. He had come back to the bakery with her after their picnic (not, of course, without a fair bit of teasing about going home with her on the first date) to help put things away, and he had lingered long enough to watch the entire exchange.

"I would have thought that you would be over the moon about Ladynoir actually happening, Alya!" Rose exclaimed the following morning, when her eager 'Alya! Alya, did you hear?' was met by a long face. "You've wanted it to happen for ages now? What _happened?_"

"Oh, I, uh…." Alya started, clearly taken aback at being questioned by anyone, and Adrien snickered quietly from his spot next to Marinette. He knew as well as she did that Alya couldn't exactly admit to thinking that Marinette was dating Chat Noir without explaining _why_, and even with Hawkmoth behind bars she wasn't supposed to tell anyone about her secret identity _just in case_\- but clearly she couldn't explain that she was hoping that she was right about Marinette dating Chat Noir so that she could figure out his identity. And now, since they _weren't_ dating, her dream of finding out who he was that way had gone down the drain. "Uh…"

Neither of the two superheroes felt at _all_ guilty about the destruction of that particular dream. Alya shouldn't have been trying to ferret out their identities in the first place, she shouldn't have been jumping to conclusions, and she shouldn't have been bothering Marinette about the "relationship" at all, even if it had been confirmed instead of just speculation.

"They're _so_ cute, I don't know how anyone could be anything but thrilled!" Rose gushed, apparently not willing to wait for Alya to finish muddling through her half-baked explanation for why she wasn't thrilled about the superhero development. "A midnight picnic on the rooftops of Paris, how romantic! Did you see the candles in the photos? A _candlelit_ midnight picnic!"

There were murmurs from their classmates. Mylène nodded in agreement, clasping her hands together just like Rose. "It's so cute! I do wonder about the timing, though- do you think that they wanted to date before, but didn't let themselves because of Hawkmoth? And then now that-" Mylène caught herself, ducking her head sheepishly as she glanced at Adrien and then away again. "Anyway, now it's safe, and everything's being dealt with, so they can relax and date!"

"Or they were already dating and they were just keeping it secret, like in a novel!" Rose beamed at the thought. "I mean, there were pictures and videos of them kissing and flirting before, but they just denied that they were in a relationship and that things were taken out of context. Maybe that was actually just when they slipped up!"

There were murmurs at that, and then the gossip exploded as people chimed in with interactions that they had seen themselves, if they thought it was romantic, the likelihood that the superheroes had actually been trying to hide a relationship…

The general consensus, from what Marinette could make out in the babble, was that the superheroes would have done a better job of hiding their flirting if they had actually been dating in secret. She supposed that that was about as good as she could hope for.

At least her classmates had _some_ faith in her and Chat Noir. Marinette would have been _super_ embarrassed if they decided that the superheroes just didn't have enough common sense to be able to hide their relationship properly.

"How are you doing, dude?" Nino asked, appearing at Adrien's side. "Let me know if you need to, like, step out or anything."

"I'm good," Adrien assured him, smiling. "I've gotten used to- to everything. And it's not like I'm not interested in Ladybug and Chat Noir anymore or anything. I think it's sweet that they're dating."

Nino looked supremely unconvinced. "You, the ultimate Ladybug fanboy, are _totally fine_ with Ladybug dating Chat Noir instead of you?"

"Chat Noir knows Ladybug, though," Adrien pointed out reasonably, though his cheeks had turned pink. "_Way_ better than anyone else in the city. Are you _really_ going to think that I would throw a fit over someone dating my celebrity crush?"

Nino considered that, then shrugged. "Nah, fair point. I always think of _celebrity crushes_ on being on famous people that you've never met, I guess, and you've definitely_ met_ Ladybug. But I can see how that's different!" he added hastily. "Or how meeting Ladybug is kind of like doing meet and greets with bands or whatever. You don't really get to _know_ them, just meet them. They're not, like, suddenly obtainable because you've met them once."

Adrien nodded, a little too fast and jerky. "Yup! Exactly."

Nino narrowed his eyes suspiciously at that, but didn't comment on it, simply shrugging and moving on. "Did you know about it before the news broke? I think you're the person that the superheroes have been in closest contact with."

Adrien blinked. "I… don't follow?"

"Were they being obvious flirts, I think he's asking," Marinette cut in before Adrien could give away anything potentially incriminating. "Which they wouldn't be, right? They always seemed pretty down-to-business from what I saw."

"Yeah, they pass on what they know and then they're off," Adrien agreed. "After answering any of my questions, of course. They have lives to get back to, after all, and they probably have to make excuses to go out and talk to me."

Nino considered that. "Okay, yeah. That's true. But speaking of which…" He glanced around to make sure that they had some privacy- all of their classmates seemed to be caught up in the gossip and speculation about Ladybug and Chat Noir, and Marinette could overhear Alix and Kim tossing the word 'bet' around- and then leaned forward, genuine curiosity and concern on his face. "How's that going? Any word on your mom yet? I heard she woke up."

Adrien grinned. "Yeah! So yesterday, the superheroes told me…"

* * *

Mrs. Agreste returned home once she was fully recovered, accompanied by a police escort to keep away gawkers and people who might have some misplaced anger at her because of Mr. Agreste's actions. Adrien met her at the mansion, with Marinette at his side.

They weren't dating as their civilian selves, not yet. The delay between the superheroes' announcement and theirs would hopefully be a good buffer of time so that people wouldn't associate the two fledgling relationships too closely, and so people wouldn't be so suspicious about the admittedly odd timing of them starting to date right after Adrien's father had been arrested and his mom had been found in a coma. It would also allow time for Emilie Agreste to return to Paris and reunite with her son before _also_ having to adjust to the idea of her only child dating. Adrien thought that his mom would be delighted- despite being married to Gabriel Agreste, she was a romantic at heart- but Marinette was a little more cautious.

She didn't want Adrien's mom to dislike her just because she came back to everything changing too fast and Marinette was an easy target to blame for some of that change. Maybe that wasn't _likely_, if Adrien was to be believed, but it was better to not make waves. Mrs. Agreste could meet Marinette as Adrien's Very Good Friend, notice the romantic vibes between them, and get eased into the idea of Adrien dating someone a little more slowly.

Tikki thought that it was a good approach, too. Adrien had groaned about it for a little bit- after all, with his mom home, it would be _far_ harder for him to slip out as Chat Noir, so he wouldn't get to do rooftop dates with Ladybug as often- but admitted that it was probably smart. If his mom was having a _really_ hard time adjusting, they could always tell Marinette's parents that they were dating in secret and be able to cuddle there until Mrs. Agreste was more ready to accept their relationship.

Hopefully it wouldn't take long. Having to sneak around wasn't much fun, not after months and months of sneaking and excuses and flat-out lies so that they could go fight akumas. Even though it wasn't _serious_ sneaking- they could probably just tell his mom that they were studying together- it was just…. well, a little exhausting after everything else.

The gates swung open, silent and imposing as ever, freshly oiled by the Gorilla just that morning, and the Agreste family car turned in. Two police cars pulled in neatly behind them, but Mrs. Agreste paid them no mind. She burst out of the car as soon as it pulled to a stop, dashing up the steps towards Adrien with a beam on her face.

"Darling!" she called, scooping him up in her arms. "You've grown! My goodness, you're going to pass me soon at this rate. You look so good! What have you been up to? No one has been able to tell me much. And who is this? Are you Adrien's girlfriend?"

Marinette blinked as the human hurricane that was Emilie Agreste turned to her. "Uh…"

She- she hadn't been prepared for Emilie to be completely eager for Adrien to have a girlfriend. Or- or maybe she _wasn't_, but she was just excited and so everything was exciting and fine with her and once- well, once _everything_ hit her and she started getting readjusted to life in Paris, maybe she would be less fine with everything.

"Mom, this is Marinette- she's one of my best friends from school!" Adrien told Mrs. Agreste before Marinette could pull herself together. "She wanted to make sure that I wasn't waiting for you on my own, because I _definitely_ would have gone crazy from anticipation."

"That's so sweet of you!" Mrs. Agreste exclaimed. "I'm glad that Adrien has made such great friends at- at school, right? I think I heard something about that."

Adrien nodded, and for the first time, Marinette saw some hesitance there. He had mentioned that his mom had been the one in charge of his homeschooling, at least for the earlier years, so she might be less than pleased about his move to public schools. "Yeah. I wanted to get out and go to classes and- and make friends. And it's been great! I'm learning a lot, and not just school stuff, either! There's a lot of social stuff that I've learned- that I'm _still_ learning-"

"All good things," Marinette added hastily, before Mrs. Agreste could start jumping to conclusions about what kinds of things Adrien might be learning. "Dupont is a really well-behaved school, everyone- well, _most_ everyone- is really nice."

"There's the odd bully, but everyone else is fantastic," Adrien added on. "It's really great, getting to experience group projects and proper presentations and, like, not being the only one answering questions. There's so many different points of view that people bring to the table!"

"I suppose that as long as the school is a quality one, it's probably fine," Mrs. Agreste decided after a moment's pause. "And normally I would assume that it had been properly vetted by Nathalie, but- well, I suspect that she's been a bit distracted. I'll want to have conferences with your teachers. When I get the time, that is." She sighed. "I suspect that I'll be quite busy for a bit. And- well, you're going to be entering lycée soon, I suppose I had better get on researching schools for _that_, too."

"My parents can send you some materials for the schools that most of the Dupont students end up going to," Marinette offered before Mrs. Agreste could get too wrapped up in lycée worries. "They're good schools, really- well, there's one that's not fantastic, but my parents won't have stuff for that school anyway."

Mrs. Agreste perked up. "Oh, that would be _lovely_, dear. Yes, yes, I suppose it wouldn't make much sense to look at _all_ of the schools in the city anyway."

"Right," Adrien chimed in. He glanced at the waiting policemen. "Uh, should we see what they want…?"

Mrs. Agreste glanced that way, too, and the policemen took that as their cue to jog up the steps to join them. They smiled at Adrien and Marinette, then turned to Mrs. Agreste.

"We want to let you get settled and caught up with your family, of course, but we just wanted to let you know that the Paris police department is here for you," the shorter of the two policemen told Mrs. Agreste. "Let us know if people give you any trouble or if you need help with anything while you're settling back in. We started the procedure of undoing your status as a missing person as soon as the superheroes found you, so hopefully you won't have _too_ much trouble as far as paperwork goes."

"Thank you," Mrs. Agreste told him. "And thank you to your entire department for arranging my flight home! It was _so_ nice to have someone accompany me and make sure I didn't get lost in the airports on the way home!"

The policeman smiled. "Of course. And we _do_ apologize that we couldn't just magic you back and you had to go through the flights in the first place. The superheroes _wanted_ to use the- the Horse Miraculous, I believe?- to just magic you back home, but unfortunately that just couldn't be done."

Adrien and Marinette winced in unison. Using the Horse had been the plan originally, but somehow the Tibetan government had caught wind of the whole situation and stepped in. They had been none too thrilled with the idea of people magicking themselves over their borders unannounced and unmonitored and had ended up banning it. Which- well, a ban wasn't going to make the magic _not_ work, but it was probably a good idea to act like they were going along with it. After all, Ladybug and Chat Noir would be popping over to the temple when they could for training in the future. If they resisted the government's order for Mrs. Agreste to travel the _normal_ way, that could result in the temple being closely monitored and it would be impossible for them to slip in undetected.

So Mrs. Agreste had flown back to Paris.

"Oh, it's fine," Mrs. Agreste assured him. "I understand, and it wouldn't have made sense to cause an international incident over me. The important thing is that I'm back now!"

The police smiled at that, then quickly said their good-byes and piled back into their cars. They pulled out, and Marinette watched as the gates smoothly swing shut behind them. There were a few gawkers that had been near the gates, but they didn't linger long when the police cars paused.

"Well, now we're on our own," Mrs. Agreste announced, pulling Marinette's attention back to her. She was beaming at her and Adrien. "Why don't we all go inside? I want to hear about _everything_."

* * *

Marinette and Adrien ended up waiting for two and a half weeks before they decided to "start dating" publicly, but as their civilian selves this time.

And, much to their relief, it went over well. It went over _really_ well. Marinette's parents and their classmates had been waiting for it to happen, that much was obvious, and Mrs. Agreste….

Well, Mrs. Agreste was smugly satisfied with herself for having called it _"literally the second that I got back, Adrien, I just knew that you were going to start dating that girl!_".

The satisfaction, from what Adrien had told Marinette, was because she had been concerned that she wouldn't know Adrien like she had before and he might seem like a stranger to her now. The fact that she had picked up on the 'strong romantic currents' between the two right away had apparently been _incredibly_ pleasing to her.

Marinette had laughed at that, but it had honestly been worth waiting a couple of weeks to "start dating" just for that reaction alone. It had helped Mrs. Agreste feel even more comfortable than they had anticipated, and that was _definitely_ a good thing. Every time Marinette had seen her Mrs. Agreste had seemed a bit on the flustered side, trying to catch up with everything while still spending as much time with Adrien as she could. With the confidence that her son wasn't a _completely_ different person and hadn't grown into someone unrecognizable- well, everything else didn't seem to be so daunting.

And- well, Mrs. Agreste's obvious approval put both Adrien and Marinette at ease, too, so it was a win on both sides.

Marinette smiled as she joined Adrien in front of the school, twining her fingers with his before they started up the steps together. A lot had changed recently, but- well, it had all been resolved really well. Adrien had a caring (if perhaps a _little_ overly involved) parent at home again, he and Marinette were dating, and their secret identities were safely- well, _secret_. There were maybe a few odd ends that had to be wrapped up at some point- after all, Chat Noir had been coming over on a fairly regular basis and then suddenly stopped, and Marinette's parents were bound to wonder what had happened to their friendship at some point unless they did something about it- but for now, everything was in a good place.

"Where do you want to go for our lunch date?" Adrien asked, pulling Marinette out of the first musings about what, maybe, they could do about the whole _Chat Noir-Marinette friendship_ situation. "Anywhere in particular?"

"Oh, there's a lovely little place down the street that sells these really good wraps," Marinette said at once, remembering the small store. "And we could either eat there or in the park. It's supposed to be really nice out today."

Adrien nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! Yeah, that sounds good. I like that idea." He squeezed her hand lightly, sending her an adoring look that she automatically returned and- yeah, maybe it wasn't that much of a surprise that his mom had managed to pick up on their interest in each other. "I like this whole _getting to go out on dates publically_ thing. No more secrecy, no more sneaking around."

Marinette nodded, rolling up onto her toes to press a quick kiss to his cheek, because she could _do_ that now, and it was amazing. "Me too."

Paris was safe, and now- now they could be normal teenagers again.

* * *

_a/n: Woo and that's the end! I'll admit that I went back and forth on whether or not I was happy with how many things kind of got skimmed over/summarized, but it was either that or a zillion micro-scenes... and micro-scenes and I just don't get along. At all. So I'm going with this._

_Thanks for reading! As always, comments make my day :)_


End file.
